Subvolts take Siemens executive Peter Koerte explains how industrial AI quietly optimizes critical infrastructure. Apr 20, 2026 - Developers
- Learn about the unique challenges and requirements for building AI in industrial, physical systems.
- Business
- Understand how AI drives efficiency and reliability in critical infrastructure beyond consumer applications.
This interview provides a solid look at industrial AI applications from a key executive at a major industrial company.
Industrial AI for the Physical World: Siemens’s Peter Koerte
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From Subvolts
Summary and analysis by Subvolts editorial, AI-assisted.
This episode of Me, Myself, and AI features Peter Koerte of Siemens discussing industrial AI's impact on physical infrastructure. Unlike consumer AI, industrial AI requires high accuracy and handles proprietary data to improve factories, transportation, energy grids, and buildings. Koerte shares examples of AI predicting equipment failures and optimizing energy use, emphasizing the blend of technology, people, and workflows.
This episode covers how artificial intelligence is improving things like factories, trains, and power grids. It's important because AI is making these essential systems more reliable and efficient, even if you do not see it working.
This episode offers insight into the less visible but critical applications of AI in industrial settings. It's for business leaders and technologists interested in AI's practical, behind-the-scenes impact on essential services. While frontier labs focus on generative AI and large models, Siemens demonstrates AI's role in optimizing the physical world, highlighting the need for domain expertise and data partnerships, which complements current research into AI's real-world utility and integration.
- HostSam Ransbotham
- HostShervin Khodabandeh
- GuestPeter Koertemember of the managing board and chief strategy and technology officer, Siemens
- Guest: Peter Koerte, member of the managing board and chief strategy and technology officer of Siemens
- Show: Me, Myself, and AI
- Length: 31 minutes
- Topic: Industrial AI for the Physical World
- Example: Predicting train door failures days in advance
In this episode, Sam talks with Peter Koerte, member of the managing board and chief strategy and technology officer of Siemens, about how industrial AI is quietly transforming the infrastructure that powers everyday life.
While consumer AI grabs headlines, Peter explains how artificial intelligence is improving factories, transportation systems, energy grids, and buildings behind the scenes. The conversation explores what makes industrial AI different — from the need for near-perfect accuracy to the challenge of working with proprietary, domain-specific data.
Peter shares examples like predicting train door failures days in advance, optimizing building energy use, and accelerating complex engineering simulations. Peter and Sam also discuss the importance of domain expertise, the value of data-sharing partnerships across companies, and why transformation is as much about people and workflows as it is about technology. Read the episode transcript here.
Guest bio:
As a member of the managing board, chief strategy officer, and chief technology officer of Siemens, Peter Koerte is responsible for developing the company’s strategy and leading its worldwide research and development activities. His current priorities include accelerating development of innovative sustainable technologies and continuing development of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform.
Koerte previously headed Digital Health, a Siemens Healthineers unit that develops AI-supported diagnostic procedures for health care. He joined the corporate strategy side of the company in 2007 after working for the Boston Consulting Group. Koerte holds a master’s degree in business and engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a doctorate in strategy and international management from the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management. He also completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.
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- proprietary
- Peter Koerte
- information or data that belongs to a specific company and is not shared publicly
- domain-specific
- Peter Koerte
- related to a particular field or area of knowledge
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Questions people ask
- What is industrial AI?
- Industrial AI focuses on improving physical infrastructure like factories, transportation, energy grids, and buildings, requiring near-perfect accuracy and working with proprietary data.
- What are examples of industrial AI in action?
- Examples include predicting train door failures days in advance, optimizing building energy use, and accelerating complex engineering simulations.
Page generated Oct 19, 2026. Summaries are Subvolts' own; the audio, artwork and notes belong to MIT Sloan Management Review.